Each such restriction is to capital what the Berlin Wall was to people: an obstacle meant only to protect irresponsible and oppressive governments from the consequences of their irresponsibility and oppression.

By forcibly obstructing people’s ability to flee a tyrannical regime, the Berlin Wall averted only a symptom – people flight – of the East German government’s depredations. Likewise, by forcibly obstructing investors’ abilities to sell assets, Germany’s new capital restrictions avert only a symptom – capital flight – of the current German government’s unwise economic policies.